Real IRA

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the RIRA judgement today the PMOS said that it was a matter for the Northern Ireland Office, but that it was the Government’s view that the law did meet this point. However, it was a matter for the relevant authorities to consider this judgement and what action to take as a result of it. It was only appropriate for those relevant authorities to make their decision before any announcement were made.

This is Teflon Tony in action yet again. His stance on Iraq – to continue what he has started – is commendable especially as the siuation is now a mess. However IF he was a Prime Minister of any stature at all he would surely have made a more convincing statement than this.
Once again British Law is seen to be an ass.

Northern Ireland is the perennial rock; the troubles the perennial hard place. It’s difficult to imagine what can be done about this, for Blair – the devolved political and security systems aren’t politically strong enough to withstand him making a statement before the devolved powers and bodies do, and so he has to sit on his hands and let the people who are meant to be the mouthpiece for that process do so. Meanwhile, everyone can see that he’s sitting on his hands, and so people get the impression that it’s all puppetry.

If he speaks up, he steps on the process of convincing people that the power isn’t centralised; if he stays silent, he reinforces the impression that little strings attached to the backs of the folks in the Northern Ireland office run down under the ground, across the sea, under the streets of London, and into the hands of a man in 10 Downing Street.